The goal of this conference is to create an opportunity for direct communication among individuals representing the broad range of disciplines relevant to the development of human viral vaccines. Particular emphasis will be placed on participation by students, postdoctoral fellows and junior investigators. Announcements of the meeting will encourage abstracts from younger scientists. This conference is timely because vaccine research has entered an innovative phase, as the new tools of molecular biology have refined our understanding of viral pathogenesis and immunity. The scientific focus of the meeting will be to consider how new molecular methods can be applied to vaccine research most effectively. This objective will be met by inviting plenary speakers who are established scientists with diverse backgrounds in fields relevant to human viral vaccines. The discussants will be asked to address specifically how the work that they present helps to define future opportunities or obstacles to implementation of vaccine strategies. The goal will be to assure that new perspectives emerge and unexplored and novel approaches are identified. The program includes workshops lead by senior investigators to enhance interactions between attendees and speakers. Breakthroughs that are emerging in vaccine biology will be discussed, including as molecular approaches to viral attenuation, cytokine modulation of antiviral immunity and identification of viral protein targets of critical host responses. Speakers will address how new information about systemic and mucosal compartments of immunity, pathways of antigen presentation and ways that viruses have evolved to avoid host reposes relate to the design of human vaccines. Topics will include improvement of virus strains used in current vaccines, new viral targets for attenuation, viral vaccines as vectors, host range-restricted viruses as vaccines, selection of protein or peptide immunogens, adjuvants, novel delivery systems, dendritic cells for antigen delivery and DNA vaccination. Innovations in vaccine design for other human viral pathogens will be reviewed in the context of the effort to develop a vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus. Finally, this meeting will expand the usual format of vaccine conferences by emphasizing epidemiological considerations that should guide the development of useful and effective vaccines as well vaccine regulatory issues that are critical for the design of human vaccines.